Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
RISING AND SHINING
Sarah-Jane Mee on why her mouth has to fight to keep up with her brain while anchoring Sky’s adrenaline-fuelled breakfast show
Sarah-Jane Mee is sipping on her third cappuccino in less than an hour and feeling a little guilty. ‘I don’t usually have this much caffeine, but today I feel the need.’ And little wonder: she’s fresh from the helm of Sky breakfast show Sunrise, a four-hour news marathon that can encompass anything from the big political stories of the day to breaking news of terror attacks.
Make no mistake though, this is exactly the sort of high-octane environment that Sarah-Jane, 39, thrives on. It’s a year and a half since she took over as the anchor of Sunrise, replacing Eamonn Holmes, who’d been in the role for 11 years. The 3am starts aside – ‘you never get used to those,’ she says – she considers herself ‘the luckiest girl alive’.
It’s been a turbulent time so far with some pretty dramatic news events, from the US elections – during which Sarah-Jane was anchoring from New York – to the Manchester and London Bridge terror attacks, and the Grenfell Tower fire.
‘I did have a pinch-me moment in Times Square, which is so iconic,’ she says now. ‘But most days there isn’t time to think about it. Often I’ll have shows where it feels like my teeth don’t fit properly because my mouth can’t quite keep up with my brain, it’s moving so fast,’ she laughs.
It must be said she looks good on her vampire-hoursand-adrenaline existence, in part down to the health kick she embarked on after she got the job. ‘I started weight training, cut sugar out of my diet and stopped drinking alcohol… that was going really well until last summer when I fell off the wagon,’ she laughs. ‘I’m not going to live like a nun. You have to look after yourself but you also have to have fun. That was Eamonn’s advice.’
Eamonn’s been a mentor to SarahJane, and remains a good friend. ‘He’ll often text me after a show to say, “Great job on that interview, kiddo,”’ she says. He does miss doing the show – but not getting up at 3am.’
Taking over from Eamonn has a nice circularity to it, as Sarah-Jane grew up in Essex watching Eamonn on the GMTV sofa alongside Anthea Turner and says that pairing sparked her desire to work in television.
After university, work experience in a local TV newsroom convinced her she’d found her vocation. ‘I liked the buzz. It can be very sink or swim.’
She was working as a runner at Sky Sports News when an executive spotted her potential in front of the camera and gave her a presenting job with ITV Central. It led her, eventually, back to Sky and finally her Sunrise slot.
She’s had some headline-worthy moments already: shortly after taking the job in October 2016 she grilled justice secretary Liz Truss about claims British prisons were out of control, asking her, ‘Are you out of your depth?’, and corrected Lord Heseltine live on air in March last year when he referred to the Prime Minister’s Brexit negotiations as a ‘man-sized job’.
‘I had to point out that actually it was a woman-sized job,’ she smiles. ‘He took it in good spirit.’
She’s suffered relatively little sexism herself, despite starting out in the notoriously male-dominated arena of TV sport. ‘A lot of broadcasters had paved the way for me – Gabby Logan, Kirsty Gallacher, Hazel Irvine, Ellie Oldroyd – so I think I got a much easier ride,’ she says. Nor has she experienced the kind of online bullying other women in the public eye have been subjected to. ‘But if I wear an unflattering top I’ll get messages on social media asking me if I’m pregnant!’
Which leads to whether, at 39, she’s hearing the tick of her biological clock. She insists not. ‘Right now I’ve only got one baby getting me up in the night – Sunrise. I’ve accepted the fact that if I do have a family I’ll be an older mother. I haven’t met the right person to have a long-term relationship with at the moment so I’m still single.’
She shrugs. ‘It honestly isn’t at the forefront of my mind. This is my dream job. And as Eamonn says, “You never know when it’ll end,” so I just want to enjoy every minute.’ Sunrise , Monday- Thursday, 6-10am, Sky News.